


Your Fate's Not In The Stars

by AndreaLyn



Series: Hard Earned Rights [9]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-25
Updated: 2013-09-25
Packaged: 2017-12-27 15:32:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/980610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndreaLyn/pseuds/AndreaLyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jim knows that it's not just destiny leading them to this moment and McCoy knows that sometimes you have to live life by that moment before it passes you by.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Your Fate's Not In The Stars

They have precisely three weeks of shore-leave amassed and Jim is packing away their things in their room while Pike paces in circles with the cue cards in his hands. He flips forward, then back, as if stuck in a perpetual cycle of pushing forward only to slide back. Jim is leaning heavy against his desk and space is dormant outside the windows. The stars sit untouchable and unmoving while they’re on break and Jim can’t wait to see them speed behind him, but there are more pressing issues to attend to.   
  
Pike finally drops the cards and looks at Jim.   
  
“Well, what do you think?” Jim asks eagerly.   
  
Pike taps the cards lightly against his leg, eyeing Jim with delight and bemusement. “I think it’s a good thing you don’t write the press releases for the  _Enterprise_ ,” Pike comments wryly as he slowly sits down into Jim’s desk chair. “Did you have an idea when you wanted this to take place?” he asks, shifting in his chair, rubbing a hand over his legs and wincing. Some pains never disappear and the shadow of some memories sometimes hurt more than the actual pain does.   
  
Jim’s been reading his copy of the cards over and over again, finding new mistakes every time he looks them over. If Bones were there, he’d be forced to give up the cards, but Bones is busy with Sulu in the greenhouse cross-checking all the plants to see which have a conflict with the crew’s allergies. He’s also perusing the inventory to bring back to Jim, but it just means he’s not there. “Not sure, yet. Exactly,” Jim mumbles distractedly.   
  
“Does he have a ring?”  
  
“We’re using Starfleet class rings,” Jim provides as he looks up from changing ‘the very best friend’ back to ‘the closest affiliation’ and then back. “Bones already has one and I put an order in during the mission. It’ll attract less attention.” They’ve gone over every detail like this. Bones brings up away missions and Jim thinks about ship morale and they come to a mutual agreement somewhere in the middle that makes the most sense. “We’ll just engrave some initials in the silver.”  
  
“You’re really serious about this,” Pike marvels, shaking his head.   
  
“Joanna says if I’m not, I owe her six hours of her life back thanks to dress fittings,” Jim says with a broad grin. It’s something that he knows ought to frustrate him, but all he can do is smile because it’s a family that he’s nestled and nudged his way into after all this time. It’s  _his_  and he wants to hear all of Joanna’s complaints about dresses and all of Bones’ fits about Jim’s latest medical results. “Besides, Bones isn’t letting me call it the W-word. I think he’s still freaked out about that from the last time.”  
  
Jocelyn sits on the invitation list, her name a shining beacon as if proof that even things that are bad once upon a time can somehow manage to turn out for the best.   
  
Everything has been arranged and it’s all impeccable. Jim just needs to somehow find a pole that will vault him over the nerves that are currently attacking every limb of his body and trying to make him find doubt in this plan. Bones had said yes, Jim had thought  _yes_ , and with all his being, he wants this tether to promise him that no matter where in the universe he goes, some part of him will always be attached to Bones because of their plans.  
  
It helps that Jim loves Bones and wants to be with him, of course.   
  
The hall has been booked away for them and Joanna is currently with Bones as they discuss the horses back home. Sam is coming aboard with the family that evening and Pike is going to officiate. If Jim just thinks about things like that, it will be better because it’s simple.   
  
“I think what you’re doing is admirable, Jim,” Pike praises as he sets the cards down. “A lot of people in the Admiralty were sure you were never going to take that little step. It’s hard, you know,” Pike advises knowingly. “There’s a tiny step between two cliffs, but the chasm is so deep and falls so far that you have to be very sure about how you make that step and bridge between being a Captain in Starfleet and a Captain that has a future in the Admiralty.” His fingers rub the corners of the cards and flicks them idly, a little action that has caught Jim’s attention. “This is good, Jim. I know this is a personal decision, but it’s going to be well-regarded. You’ve grown up and we all know it, but this shows the rest of the universe that you’re more than a flashy Captain all about the do-or-die scenarios.”  
  
“I’ve never been about that, sir,” Jim says defensively, even though Pike’s the last person in the world he has to defend himself to. “It’s all about my crew. It’s always been about the crew.”  
  
“And Doctor McCoy understands that.”  
  
“He was the one who got the ball rolling,” Jim points out. “Bones went way beyond protocol getting me on the  _Enterprise_  six years ago. Least I could do was repay the favor by screwing over protocol to save the lives of the people I was in command of and the guy who gave me a shot in the first place.”  
  
“Well, Jim, my life and my legs thank you for that utter disrespect of authority.”  
  
“It’s been what, like, four months since my last court martial?” Jim scoffs, pretending to be a maligned innocent in the whole matter. “And that was stupid.”  
  
“Jim, your ship stole whales from the past.”  
  
“We had to! Earth depended on it.”  
  
“Did you also have to steal the ship?”  
  
“ _Enterprise_  wouldn’t have made the slingshot as well as the Klingon warbird would,” Jim says mildly. “Besides, Ambassador Spock said it had to happen at some point during our lifetimes and implied that it was inevitable. It was destiny.” Jim’s still not sure about all the talk of destiny from that universe because from what he gathers, he had a father there and knew what it was life to feel the safety and warmth of family.   
  
He understands that now, but it’s taken him half of a lifetime and the cobblings of his grieving family to find that. They’re never going to forget the wounds that George Kirk’s death caused. With Joanna, with Bones, with Sam and with his mother, though…Jim thinks he stands a chance at having a family.   
  
Destiny, though? He’s not sure it’s been fate’s hand in the matter so much as their own hard work at play. He remembers the mind-meld with the Ambassador and seeing the edge of terrifying flashes at play, the implication of events to come in this universe no matter what they do because some things are inevitable, some things are destiny. He still lives in fear of them encroaching on the universe that he’s trying to make a life out of.   
  
Jim wants so badly for his destiny to be at Bones’ side until he dies that it makes his heart actively hurt when he thinks of it being anything else.   
  
He remembers something from that meld, something that hasn’t left him. The echo of his alternate-self murmuring,  _“I’ve always known I’ll die alone”_  and the ensuing disapproval from Spock and Bones. He wants nothing more than to prove himself wrong because he’s not going to die alone if he can help it. He wants this ceremony to be a first step towards making sure that someone is always at his side.   
  
Pike sighs and looks back to the cards. “Are these actually McCoy’s contributions or is he going to be surprised when I stand up at the dais and ask him to repeat after me.”  
  
“…pleasantly surprised.”  
  
“Jim,” Pike warns.  
  
“He knows the gist,” he replies more seriously. “I vetted it through Joanna and Jocelyn and even Uhura. She’s the one,” Jim says, leaning forward to gesture with his finger, “who helped me with the alien dialect to talk about good harmony and peace together. That’s the part of the ritual where you have to drizzle us both with the water we collected from the surface of that Class-M planet from our reports last month.”  
  
Pike is smiling at him in a way that Jim’s not sure what’s exactly going on.  
  
“What?” he asks warily.  
  
“I’m just looking at you and trying to remember the kid I found in the bar all those years ago,” Pike marvels, his tone hushed as if he can’t exactly believe his eyes. “You grew up. You grew up into a man that your father would have been damn proud of and I know that for a fact. I’m proud of you, Jim. Everyone I know is. You’ve saved the Earth more times than I could count on my hands and feet and you’re not doing it for the medals, you’re just doing it because you give a damn. I don’t know if that’s McCoy’s influence, but he’s been at your side this whole damn time. I can only imagine the good you two will do after this.”  
  
Jim is staring at the ground in front of him and trying as hard as he can to keep himself composed so that he doesn’t start grinning madly. It’s such a little thing, but Pike’s pride in him and the knowledge that everyone back home spends at least a single second of their day thinking about him, it lets him remember what he’s doing all this for.  
  
He’s so caught up in his thoughts that he barely realizes they’re not alone in the room and that Bones has joined them, pressing a brush of his lips to Jim’s temple.  
  
“Admiral,” he greets Pike politely.  
  
“Doctor. How’s your daughter?”  
  
“Settling in just fine. She asked Nurse Chapel to give her a tour, insisting that she was going to be part of Starfleet’s medical team within the next six years,” Bones says ruefully, flashing Jim an apologetic shrug.   
  
Pike seems well-charmed by this and laughs. “Ambition runs in the family, then.” And Jim feels his heart skip a beat because he  _knows_  that he’s not Joanna’s father and he  _knows_  Pike might be meaning something else, but that comment right there is meant for him, it has to be, and he feels almost like he can’t breathe for how proud he is of Joanna in that moment (of Joanna and her stubborn pig-headed determination to take the world by storm).   
  
Jim reaches up to catch Bones by the wrist and tugs him to sit down in a chair while Jim perches on the arm-rest. “Pike’s just reading over the vows,” he explains.  
  
“Are they still appropriate?” Bones asks, arching one of his brows fluidly. “I know Jim’s been taking a pen to them.”  
  
“I think they’ll pass muster,” Pike chuckles lightly and taps them against the back of his hand. “I’ll see the both of you tomorrow at the rehearsal?”  
  
“Will do,” Jim says dutifully with a nod of his head. “If you need anything, tell my crew and we’ll get it for you. Promise.”  
  
Jim watches as Pike leaves the guest room and turns to peer down at Bones when they’re finally left on their own. He lets circling thoughts of destiny and fate play out until they’re nothing more than a dwindling echo in his mind and sprawls back against the chair, draping his arm around Bones’ shoulders.  
  
“No cold feet yet?” Jim asks quietly, eyes stuck on the class ring on Bones’ right hand, perched and perfectly ready to make the jump to the left.   
  
Bones permits that a snort as he looks up at Jim. “You’ve done so many crazy things in your life that I’ve been accomplice to that I’ve lost count. Running out on you now when we worked so damn hard to get here? I’m not that crazy, Jim, despite the rumors about me that are all over Earth. Honestly, so I lost my temper  _once_  with an ensign at the Academy…”  
  
“I think they still use that lecture to scare incoming med-students away,” Jim provides helpfully.   
  
The comment gets him shoved off the chair (or maybe laughing at Bones while he says it does), but by the time Bones helps him from off the floor, they’re both smiling and laughing and the prospect of the event forty-eight hours from now makes it so that there’s a nervous edge to their laugh and something bordering euphoric.  
  
There’s no turning back now and Jim’s more than ready to jump in with both feet.   
  
*  
  
“Captain, you requested my presence?”  
  
It’s a strange thing, Jim thinks, as he watches Spock enter the ready-room. Ever since Bones went back to Georgia and encountered Spock-Prime all those months ago, Jim’s felt an underlying resentment for that Spock and this one in some strange reverberation effect. Never mind that he and Nyota have been happily married for almost four years and have survived a harrowing Pon Farr – which would have been worse if not for M’Benga’s notice of it coming and the crew’s insistence upon helping, despite Spock’s insistence on keeping quiet about the how’s and why’s of it. Jim still looks at Spock and can’t help but see him as a danger to the future he wants and while it’s a silly and childish way of thought, it’s there.  
  
“Come in, Spock, please,” Jim invites. He needs to put aside all his ill feelings because apart from Bones, Spock really is his best friend and the best confidant that a Captain of Starfleet could hope for. If he’s going to get hitched, he’s not doing it without Spock at his side.  
  
“I assume that this line of questioning is of a personal nature, Jim, as I have perused the ship’s logs for the past week and can find no cause for us to require meeting in regard to any discrepancy in ship activity.”  
  
Jim can’t help but smile. He’s not exactly calling Spock a computer at every turn like Bones is, but sometimes, it really is incredible the way that Vulcan brain of his works. His amusement is downplayed because he’s learned how to interact off of his crew to best maximize cooperation. Hell, he’d learned that one from Spock. He only feels that it’s right if he puts it into practice right here.  
  
“It’s a personal matter, yes,” Jim agrees, seeing no issue in arguing. “Spock,” he chides slightly. “Relax for a minute. Sit, drink some Altair water, please.” He’s got a glass for Spock and a glass of wine for himself. He had thought to put together an impromptu chess match, but then they wouldn’t get past the game and wouldn’t be able to speak. Jim is the first to sit because Spock knows how to follow an example and only once Jim is comfortable does he follow suit. “It’s about the ceremony in two days’ time. I have something to ask you.”  
  
Spock inclines his head to one side, as if awaiting further explanation.   
  
Jim doesn’t understand why he feels like this is such a task. He wants to go through with this and he wants to stand up there with Bones. Hell, he even wants Spock there with him, but putting it into words is difficult. He wants to put aside the differences that an alternate reality had created, but finding the words is growing really difficult.  
  
“When I stand up before Pike, I want you to stand beside me and act as my best man.”  
  
He waits for the response, analyzing Spock’s reaction to the matter and in the meantime, Jim’s heart decides to skip three or four beats.  
  
“Captain, while I am very honored by such a request, I must admit to you something.”  
  
“What is it, Spock?”  
  
“I am hardly the best man,” he notes with a wry smile upon his face, almost unperceivable to anyone who hasn’t known Spock as long as Jim has. “For, in fact, I am more aptly your best alien in such a scenario.”  
  
“Remind me to have you do stand-up next variety-hour-night,” Jim notes wryly, but he can’t even express the relief that floods through him to hear that Spock’s accepted. He gets out a laugh of joy, clapping Spock on the shoulder. “Good god,” he sighs. “You scared me for a second and I love my crew, but asking anyone else to stand up there with me is crazy.”  
  
“Jim, I am sorry to tell you that a great majority of your acts as Captain can be seen as crazy by the majority of the population.”  
  
“Okay, we get it, you’re a real joker,” Jim says flatly.   
  
Spock softens slightly and drinks from his glass of water. “In far more serious terms, I must admit that I am very heartened to see that you and Doctor McCoy have decided to prolong your affiliation with each other on a far more permanent basis. I believe it will yield a great many happy memories and many years of joy. I am basing this on my own pleasant experiences with Lieutenant Commander Uhura,” he says promptly and politely.   
  
“Spock,” Jim protests with an incredulous look on his face, laughing like he can’t believe they’re having this conversation. “Oh my god, you can ease up on the whole pitch for marriage and unity. We’re doing this. And you’re going to stand at my side and hopefully give me the rings?”  
  
“I foresee my efficiency in this role to be very high, indeed,” Spock promises and maybe to anyone else, it might sound like a bad joke, but Jim knows better. He can hear the soft interplay of tones in Spock’s voice and he knows when he ought to be laughing or smiling appreciatively.  
  
This is not in any way a joke.  
  
“Thank you, Spock,” Jim murmurs appreciatively, gratitude and sincerity shining in his eyes. “Two more days of singledom…huh?”  
  
“I believe now is the time that I, as best man, offer you the traditional bachelor party. Shall I arrange for the strippers?”  
  
Jim hesitates for two seconds and he prays that Spock isn’t counting those in milliseconds to tell Bones at a later date. “You know what? Let’s abandon the whole stripper thing.” He pauses and watches Spock on his way out, opening his mouth at the last minute. “Although if you could send Bones here and tell him that he should wear that little outfit he picked up on Argon V, you’d be a real life-saver.”  
  
Up goes Spock’s eyebrow and up go the curves of Jim’s lips in a mischievous smirk.  
  
“Very well, Captain.”  
  
The  _‘damn it, Jim’_  he gets later can be heard from Argon V itself.  
  
And it’s so very worth it.   
  
*  
  
The entire hall has released and the only people that remain are Sam Kirk, Joanna McCoy, and a nervously pacing Jim Kirk roaming back and forth while Admiral Pike watches on with an arched brow. Jim is mumbling to himself, trying to audibly work out the kinks of a rehearsal wedding that Bones is late to thanks to an emergency surgery.  
  
“Is he just going to keep talking to himself like this?” Pike asks of Sam and Joanna, who give him a nod in solidarity.   
  
Joanna keeps her eyes on Jim worriedly, sitting precariously in a sideways position so that she can keep an eye on the door. She knows that it’s just a rehearsal and that there’s no reason for her to worry about the fact that the night before has been nothing short of a mild disaster. Ensign Keeling had gone into sudden anaphylactic shock and her father had rushed away from the podium at the front of the room, summoned Chapel, and disappeared to Medical.  
  
“Jim,” Sam is up and at his brother’s side. “Don’t believe those old wives’ tales,” he coaxes. “Think of it like all those plays we did when we were little. Remember?”  
  
“Bad rehearsal, good show,” Pike offers his agreement.   
  
“Jim played the best elm tree you’ve ever seen,” Sam says with a mischievous smirk Joanna’s way. “Remind me to send you the videos sometimes. He sang ‘But I’m Just A Tree’ with more soul than any six-year-old ever did before.” Joanna knows that Sam is trying to break up the tension, but judging from the worried lines furrowing Jim’s brow, it’s not doing the trick. He sighs and shrugs, abandoning his post to sit beside Joanna and offer her a hapless shrug. “Mom’s not here until tomorrow or else I’d suggest she give it a try.”  
  
“Jim, why are you so nervous?” Pike finally asks the question they’ve all been wondering.   
  
“It just…it can’t go wrong,” Jim says, sharp and sudden as if even he isn’t sure of why.   
  
Joanna knows that if Uncle Sam has tried and Admiral Pike has and neither have gotten a result, it’s either up to her or she needs to find her way to Medical and plead for her father to come fix this. That’s a last resort and so she sighs and stands, smoothing out the dress she’s been wearing for the rehearsal dinner and crosses the room to grasp Jim’s hands and force him to sit in the front row with her and Sam. She wishes that she could get Mom to help, but she and Clay had just gotten in and are sleeping.   
  
“My Dad loves you,” she says simply. “It doesn’t really matter to him about all this stuff. Honestly? I’m pretty sure he’d be happier if you guys eloped to Space Vegas. Is there a Space Vegas?”  
  
“There is,” Sam, Jim, and Pike agree in almost chagrined unison.   
  
She looks to each of them and it’s on the tip of her tongue to ask what the story is behind that, but she shakes her head and stares up at Jim and reaches up to press her palm against his heart lightly, biting on her lip. “I didn’t know who you were, back then,” she says quietly and doesn’t take her eyes off of him. “But now I know if I hadn’t managed to get your heart starting again, I’m pretty sure my Dad never would have been the same.” She’s not sure of any of this, but it’s a fairly logical guess as far as she can see. “Jim. Please,” she begs, sincere as she can be. “The only thing that can ruin tomorrow is…”  
  
“…is if you keep worrying a pattern into that goddamn floor,” her father interrupts her and shuts the door firmly behind him, stalking up the aisle with blood-stains up to his elbows and his hair thoroughly disheveled. He’s wearing a labcoat over the civilian clothes he’d put on to go through the rehearsal dinner, but the sleeves are rolled up and he looks vaguely exhausted. He lightly sets Joanna to the side and she hovers slightly, wanting to know what happens now. “Admiral, you got the important parts down pat?”  
  
“I didn’t just make it to where I am by being a pretty face,” Pike jokes mildly. “Of course I know.”  
  
“Say the ceremony.”  
  
“Bones!” Jim says with alarm. “What?”  
  
“I just watched a twenty-three year old die on my table because something ruptured in his system,” McCoy says sternly, but his words waver slightly, shaken. “I had my hands in him and he just slipped away. Do you know what that’s like, Jim? Not to just see a heart monitor give out or to hear a report, but to feel the heart stop beating?” Her stoic, strong, hero father is staring at Jim in a way that makes her scared and she wants to tell him that he has to be strong because if he can’t fight away all the bad in the world, what chance do they have?   
  
All little girls have grown up thinking their fathers were knights, but Joanna genuinely knows that her father is a warrior and wields his scalpel with as much honor and pride as any knight ever held a sword. He’s never let harm come to her and her stomach turns to hear that he’s not infallible, even though she ought to know better at her age.   
  
McCoy takes Jim by the hand and gives Pike a nod. “Come on. Let’s do this. Here.”  
  
“Wow, Bones, this is so romantic,” Jim deadpans.   
  
“Shut up, Jim,” McCoy replies sharply, something like fear lurking around his expression. “Keeling  _died_. He was twenty-three and out of nowhere, with no warning, he died. I’m not living life for the ceremony of it and you’ve never been one to stand on ritual.” He gives a firm nod, all his wariness falling away. “We’re doing this now. Jo, come stand by me,” he invites, taking a step to the side. “Sam, will you do the same for your brother?”  
  
Sam’s on his feet and drifting to the front of the empty room. “Jim?” he checks. “You okay with this?”  
  
“Bones is right,” Jim says, though he sounds distant. “No, he is,” he insists when Sam looks as if he’s going to counter otherwise. “We’ve never been the kind of people who live and die by the rules, so who says we don’t do this here before fate can tell us otherwise. C’mon,” he says, suddenly caught up and sounding excited. “Let’s do this. We’ll put up a bright fancy show tomorrow, but we’re not waiting another minute more. Bones, I want to be with you even if it isn’t perfect, I just want it to happen.” He pauses, looking him up and down. “And that’s good because your hair is a disaster and I’m pretty sure that freckle on your arm is blood.”  
  
McCoy glances down and scowls up at Jim. “Those are horrible vows.”  
  
“You asked for it,” Jim says with a dreamy grin on his lips, a far-off and fantastical expression lurking on his face as he stares at up McCoy. Joanna can’t help but grin herself as she understands that they’re really going to do this. She hides behind McCoy and grasps onto his hand with both of hers, squeezing it lightly as she presses a hug to him from behind, trying to remind herself that she can still depend on him, even if he’s not invincible.   
  
She wraps her arms snugly around McCoy’s waist and presses her forehead against his shoulder from behind as Pike starts up the ceremony and skips all the parts that only waste time when they’ve all decided to live for the moment. Joanna holds on as best as she can and waits until she feels her father’s hand above her palm as a sign of reassurance. She can see Jim just out of the corner of her eye and McCoy’s other hand is twined with Jim’s.  
  
“Bones, you know I don’t have the words to talk about how much you mean to me and how much that’s surprised me.” Joanna tightens her grip on McCoy and hears a soothing ‘it’s okay’ that’s probably meant for the both of them at once. “All I know is that Ambassador Spock says that there are things meant to be destiny and there are things that we can control. And I like to think that this, you and me, it’s a combination of both. Because maybe we’re not destiny and maybe part of this is supposed to be, but we made it happen,” Jim goes on determinedly with great stubbornness. “You and I are going to be together because we work for it and it comes naturally.” Joanna peers up and sees that manic and farflung look in Jim’s eyes – the one that’s ready for an adventure – and she feels as if her breath is stolen, like they’re back in the desert and ready for anything that might leap through the fiery crash or the foreign brush. “As long as I’m breathing because you keep me that way, I will do anything to make sure that you’re loved the very best that I can,” Jim insists. “I promise, Bones,” Jim whispers, quieter than before. “And you can throw up on me all you like.”  
  
“Never gonna let me live that down…” McCoy mutters, cinching his grip on Joanna tighter and shuffling back and forth (the only indicator that he’s nervous at all). “Jim. Look,” he sighs. “You know giving speeches is pretty painful for me, so I’ll put it plain and simple. There is no goddamn way I’m going to waste all those hyposprays…”  
  
This is roughly the moment that Sam, Joanna, and Pike all burst out into quiet, muffled laughter, but McCoy is laughing too, so clearly it’s meant to be a joke and not some horrible vow. Joanna knows her father isn’t a romantic, but even  _he_  could do better than that.  
  
“If it weren’t for you, I probably would have never taken the leaps I did. You took me into space, Jim,” McCoy admits. “You showed me the stars and all the possibilities of the good and the evil that we’re all possible of. Even before you and I were anything, there’s no one I wanted more at my side than you. I think maybe a part of me understood that I was never intending to give you up, but now I know. I’ve been married before and I’ve treaded these waters, but I’ve never approached it like a partnership. So this time, we push forward into the unknown together,” he says firmly. “You and me, Jim. Us against the world.”  
  
He squeezes Joanna’s hand one more time and she buries a delighted grin against McCoy’s shoulder, pleased to be here for the private show before tomorrow arrives and ringbearers and best-men and mothers-of-a-groom are brought into the picture.   
  
“Well, by the power vested in me by Starfleet and a delightful little church on Alpha-Seti-Station Six, I pronounce you bonded,” Pike remarks. “I’d let you kiss each other, but there are children present and you both need to help decorate for your actual wedding tomorrow. So hold off on it. Think you can do that,  _Jim_?” Pike notes wryly and pertinently.  
  
It’s not Jim who sneaks in a quick kiss, though, and comes back looking mischievous as the mouse who stole a cookie.   
  
Joanna finds herself bursting into giddy laughter when she watches her father turn and wink in her direction.   
  
“C’mon, Jo. If I remember my last wedding, everyone goes into conniptions if the flowers aren’t done right.” She angles herself to look past McCoy to see the dazed and pleased look on Jim’s face.  
  
Sam is the first to get to Jim’s side and claps him on the back. “Welcome to the world of married folk. Also, I didn’t buy you the blender you registered for. It was way too expensive.”  
  
Jim seems mostly speechless and given the enormity of what just happened, Joanna can’t really blame him. Words and gifts can wait for later.   
  
There’s going to be an event tomorrow and Joanna intends to make it a moment to last in everyone’s memory.


End file.
